NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: FLUSHING

By JIM O'GRADY

Published: December 29, 2002

Until there is a place to do double salchows on the east side of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, the Joseph Cornell sculptures stored in a building on the park's west side won't see the light of day.

That is not a ransom note from a fiendish figure skater. It is the predicament faced by the Queens Museum of Art. The museum cannot expand until an ice rink that shares its building leaves for a sports complex the city has started to build across the park on the site of Ederle Pool. The pool was built for the 1939 World's Fair and torn down five years ago.

Construction on the complex, designed to house an ice rink and Olympic-size swimming pool, began last summer. With $33 million budgeted for the job, the city hired a company to drive pilings and pour part of the foundation. But when final bids on the project came in, none were under $50 million.

Construction has stopped until the rest of the money can be raised. That means the current rink stays put. So the Cornell sculptures, and the museum's plan to expand to 100,000 square feet from 45,000, won't be going anywhere soon.

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe says he is trying to raise the money from public and private sources.

He has even asked NYC 2012, the group sponsoring New York's Olympic bid, to move the water polo and synchronized swimming competitions to the Flushing Meadows complex from its planned spot in Pelham Bay, the Bronx.

''NYC 2012 might have access to funds from national organizations'' that could fill the gap, he said.

NYC 2012 officials were unavailable for comment.

Mr. Benepe also considered building the pool first and the ice rink later. But that would save only $10 million.

Tom Finkelpearl, director of the Queens Museum of Art, wondered if the project could be handled the other way around. ''Is there a way to do the skating rink now and do the swimming pool later?'' he asked last week.

That option is not under consideration, Mr. Benepe said. The museum did not have the money to complete its expansion, he added, so talk of delaying its plans because of the complex's problems was ''academic.''

Mr. Finkelpearl disagrees.

''It's not academic,'' he said. ''If the rink moved out of there, we'd go full speed ahead.'' JIM O'GRADY

Photos: In an unlikely case of cause and effect, the Queens Museum of Art can't expand until the city completes a sports complex, right and below. (Kevin Hom & Andrew Goldman Architects)